In this #LIHerald column, I examine the desperate need to preserve Long Island’s diminishing aquifers — for the benefit of future Long Islanders:
By Scott Brinton
In January 2018, officials in Cape Town, South Africa, issued a dire warning: In three months, the city of 4 million people would run out of water unless urgent conservation action was taken. The city was fast counting down to what officials called “Day Zero.” Action — and desperately needed rainfall — staved off catastrophe.
On Long Island, we should take what happened in Cape Town — 7,800 miles away, on the other end of the Earth — as an object lesson in what could occur here if do not value water, our most precious resource, as we should.
Seriously.
Long Islanders get their water from aquifers — underground stores hundreds of feet beneath the surface that were thousands of years in the making. An aquifer is like a bank account. If you withdraw more money than you deposit, eventually you run out of cash. Same deal with an aquifer. Suck more water out of it than is recharged through rainfall and you run out of fresh water to drink.
In 2020, consider making this one resolution, if you’re into that sort of thing: Conserve water. And not just this year. Every year for the rest of your life. The generations to follow will thank you someday.
For more, click here.
